Charles Tufts Society

Tufts University – Charles Tufts Society Marketing

The Situation

Where did the cards go? For years, professionals involved in the planned giving area of fundraising – bequests and gifts funded with cash, equity or property — relied on donors to alert them of gifts via mailed response cards. As demographics shift, and donors became more leery of broadcasting their gift intentions, charities and non-profits find themselves in the dark.

In addition, the complexity of planned gifts means that it could be decades between a marketing trigger and the actual “purchase” (receipt of a gift).

One planned giving team —The Charles Tufts Society of Tufts University — turned to Creating Results to gain insight into the impact their marketing program is having on potential donors now, years before commitment.

The Strategy

The agency began with a comprehensive audit of Tufts Gift Planning marketing processes, analyzing the platforms, applications and internal systems used by the planned gift team and identifying in each tool ways of measuring interaction beyond response cards.

Creating Results also reviewed all current marketing materials, identifying opportunities for creating measurable engagement — and for strengthening Tufts’ message. Here the agency applied its expertise in marketing to baby boomers and seniors, primary targets for the Charles Tufts Society.

The Solution

Create a dashboard for ongoing tracking of engagement and conversions (notification of a gift)

create smaller, soft offers that move donors closer to a major commitment

Generate dozens of additional, measurable ideas for engagement

The Results

Tufts can now enhance its return on marketing investment by identifying and building on what’s working and eliminating or modifying what’s not. And, they have a new understanding of integrated communications.

“I don’t think I ever got beyond the where-are-the-reply-cards paradigm.... The image I now have in my mind is of people orbiting around the idea of charitable bequests for Tufts. Our job is to ping people from one channel to the other, and take better note of who is in orbit. By doing so, we’ll be able to identify good individual prospects, and understand what messages and methods are most effective with them.”

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